“A highly personal effort that addresses family, friends and relationships.
There’s an appealing sincerity and simplicity throughout.”
KOSW-FM #29 Top 50 Albums of 2013
The first roar….
The making of this collection of songs was a collaboration of love and friendship.
In Mid-May 2009 I asked my friends Michael Fath and Todd Wright to help me put together a song for my very sick father. I sang in a band since my college days and continued until 1999 when I retired from performing. My father rarely heard me sing, only around the house and at my sister’s wedding. I was feeling lost at the time and helpless and I needed to do something for him, there was nothing I could do to stop his illness’ march or his pain, so I decided to sing him a song.
Shenandoah was one of my father’s favorite songs. He would sing “Oh Shenandaoh” around the house; it’s a favorite memory of mine. Todd, Michael and I convened on a Friday afternoon at Todd’s studio and we cut Shenandoah. The version you hear on Young Lions uses that session completely but with added guitar work by Gary Smallwood. The arrangement by Michael was beautiful and his and Todd’s instrumental prowess are forefront. After 3 hours Todd burned me the session on CD. I took it to my parents’ house and played it for Dad, he was not talking much those final days but he smiled and nodded at me. He passed on May 22, it was the last piece of music he heard.
I never thought about doing anything else, the thought of doing a music project was as far from my thoughts as a trip to Mars. Michael and Todd both told me that I should do a full record, but I was a singer in a band, and mainly cover bands at that, I sure as hell wasn’t going to record a versions of Wooly Bully or Brown Eyed Girl.
At Todd’s urging I gave him lyrics I wrote a few years back. An afternoon at his studio and A Tie That Binds was born, from there a wellspring of words and music formed, if you are reading this you most likely have the product of that spring.
The cause….
All the net proceeds of CD sales of Young Lions will be donated to The ALS Association, JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund), American Heart Association, National MS Society and the American Cancer Fund. The diseases these great organizations battle have touched me, my family and my friends, and I bet they have touched yours, too.
The donation will not be large but it’s the giving that is huge. Please give to a charity of your choice, every little bit really does help.
Member: ASCAP
Young Lions ~ Stilson Greene 
